Balder and Osiris turn 10

[Sedgistan]

If anyone wants to write a short history of Balder and/or Osiris, whether of the full 10 years or the events around their founding, then I can potentially get it into a site News post.

[Sedgistan]

I've split this from the Balder thread so it gets a bit more prominence. This was prompted by Unibot's post here.

I'd like to see a site-wide News post on the founding of these regions. I'd like to include in that one or more short histories of the region; that could be over the last decade or focused on the intial founding period. Or something else to do with the region that you think is interesting. I also don't mind bias being in it, as I think personal accounts/perspectives could be more interesting - there'll be some commentary around it by staff that makes clear the accounts aren't necessarily fully objective.

If you want to write something, post it here, or message it to me.

Feel free to also use this thread to discuss the last 10 years of Balder/Osiris.

For reference, the original News post from 2011 is here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=news/ ... index.html

[WayNeacTia]

Geez..... I hope Cormac comes back. He has ALL the dirt on Osiris

[Alfonzo]

Geez..... I hope Cormac comes back. He has ALL the dirt on Osiris

He won't. Tim and Koth also has ALL the dirt on Osiris so maybe they should do it instead.

[Klaus Devestatorie]

Osiris gets the title of the most dramatic coup in living memory (the one led by Gatesville). Balder gets to sit quietly in the corner and to try not to think too hard about how little they've achieved over the last 10 years.

[Unibot III]

If memory serves me correctly there were six coups in Osiris in 2013.

[Klaus Devestatorie]

If memory serves me correctly there were six coups in Osiris in 2013.

Memory stopped serving either of us correctly about 5 years ago.

[Unibot III]

If memory serves me correctly there were six coups in Osiris in 2013.

Memory stopped serving either of us correctly about 5 years ago.

Speak for yourself! My memory never worked to begin with!

I thought it would be so easy to write a Osiris/Balder history having lived it. When I sat down to write it I realized many of my memories were false or fuzzy, and I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to Osiris because I had been so focused on Balder.

I have a few memories of that night — I remember us being super confused during spotting, we made a snap decision to move in, and I remember not wanting to stay long as delegate — I was really uncomfortable with being a defender leading (at best) a peacebuilding operation. I also remember waking up that night with a fever dream where I scribbled down on a page something like “tree branches roots brown two horizons” as a note to myself for the flag/WFE.

[Grea Kriopia]

I'll bite for lack of better things to do. There's a lot to be said here so I'll stick to the founding period:

The first of the two new regions was Osiris which was created by Testlandia on October 18th, 2011 at 10:20:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, although technically founded by the nation of Patroni months prior before ceasing to exist. The new region attracted attention throughout the game, particularly from raiders and defenders, and a raider known as Kain the Dragoon attempted to declare control of the region early on. Seeing this occur, the Ten Thousand Islands Treaty Organization (TITO) moved to secure the region from outside interests with the intent to hold fair elections determined by the natives of Osiris. Sichuan pepper of TITO became the first delegate of Osiris and held the position until Zaolot was publicly elected on October 28th, 2011 by the residents of Osiris, becoming the first Pharoah of Osiris.

Balder was the second of the new regions and was created less than a minute after Osiris on October 18, 2011 at 10:21:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Similar to Osiris, Balder attracted significant attention which The United Defenders League (UDL) responded to in hopes of warding off external influence by creating a constitutional convention for Balder. Robin Hood from UDL thus became Balder's first delegate with less conflict and carried out the convention that led to public elections for the delegacy position. Luxembourg was publicly elected delegate on October 25th, 2011, and quickly moved to establish democratic government and order within Balder as its first leader.

https://web.archive.org/web/20111020065042/http://www.nationstates.net/region=osiris (Wayback Machine of Osiris)
https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=690776 (Patroni Founder)
https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=7372701#p7372701 (First Nations)
https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=686993 (Kain)
https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=690710 (TITO re:elections)
https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=7463914#p7463914 (Election results)
https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=687137 (UDL)
https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=688210 (Convention)

https://www.nationstates.net/page=display_region_rmb/region=balder?start=650 (Election Results)

[Southern Bellz]

time flies. shout out to balder, osiris, and everyone else feeling old rn

[The Notorious Mad Jack]

I'll bite for lack of better things to do. There's a lot to be said here so I'll stick to the founding period:

The first of the two new regions was Osiris which was created by Testlandia on October 18th, 2011 at 10:20:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time, although technically founded by the nation of Patroni months prior before ceasing to exist. The new region attracted attention throughout the game, particularly from raiders and defenders, and a raider known as Kain the Dragoon attempted to declare control of the region early on. Seeing this occur, the Ten Thousand Islands Treaty Organization (TITO) moved to secure the region from outside interests with the intent to hold fair elections determined by the natives of Osiris. Sichuan pepper of TITO became the first delegate of Osiris and held the position until Zaolot was publicly elected on October 28th, 2011 by the residents of Osiris, becoming the first Pharoah of Osiris.

This is a wonderfully revisionist take on the early days of Osiris. TITO didn't give a damn about the natives, such as they existed at the time, of Osiris. It invaded Osiris to prevent the possibility of a raider becoming delegate, regardless of the wishes of its natives.

Happily, the legacy of TITO in Osiris is that engendered a healthy suspicion of TITO in particular and defenders in general, and later actions by other defender groups reinforced that attitude, which has been much to Osiris's benefit over the last decade.

[Kanaia]

I'll bite for lack of better things to do. There's a lot to be said here so I'll stick to the founding period:

This is a wonderfully revisionist take on the early days of Osiris. TITO didn't give a damn about the natives, such as they existed at the time, of Osiris. It invaded Osiris to prevent the possibility of a raider becoming delegate, regardless of the wishes of its natives.

Happily, the legacy of TITO in Osiris is that engendered a healthy suspicion of TITO in particular and defenders in general, and later actions by other defender groups reinforced that attitude, which has been much to Osiris's benefit over the last decade.

As someone who was there with TITO, and part of the consensus for how to deal with the new sinker, you're wrong. TITO's goal was always to give the region and its "natives" a chance at self determination; And not be immediately domineered and subjugated by outside forces. The evidence of this is clear to see both at the time: With free and fair elections being run by a neutral third party, AMOM, who at the time was a well respected player. No candidates from TITO were allowed to run. And all players being allowed to participate including raiders. When the election concluded and transfer of power occurred, and Osiris given its chance at self determination, TITO left ASAP. To my knowledge TITO has never been involved in Osiris' internal politics again. That players have chosen to use TITO as a boogeyman to sow suspicion and mistrust speaks to the quality of those players, not to the foreign policy of TITO.

[Comfed]

TITO’s goal was to prevent outside interests from dominating the region, but it… invaded the region because a raider was present?

Edit: Though, wouldn’t any government formed there be the product of foreign intervention?

[Zaolat]

I'll bite for lack of better things to do. There's a lot to be said here so I'll stick to the founding period:

This is a wonderfully revisionist take on the early days of Osiris. TITO didn't give a damn about the natives, such as they existed at the time, of Osiris. It invaded Osiris to prevent the possibility of a raider becoming delegate, regardless of the wishes of its natives.

Happily, the legacy of TITO in Osiris is that engendered a healthy suspicion of TITO in particular and defenders in general, and later actions by other defender groups reinforced that attitude, which has been much to Osiris's benefit over the last decade.

Leo long gave up raiding at this point in time anyways, so calling Kain a raider was a stretch. It would be like calling Todd a raider when he stayed in TEP instead of Foxrite. In fact Leo was integrated into the region from the get go, even before I was elected and he did fine. The main issue was me allowing Dali and NK to be the primary architects of the law. oops

Though, I will remind you Georgie, that I was a defender then.

[Unibot III]

I'm totally unqualified to write about the history of Balder/Osiris after their founding, but I've written a synopsis of an old essay and interjected some personal memories and perspective.

If you decide to use it, Sedge, look out for mis-spelled words please. I don't have spell check on this computer for some strange reason. Call it the "Loop" effect.

A decade ago today (around 22:20 EST), Osiris and Balder were founded by Testlandia. The two new regions were created with the intent of helping relieve Lazarus, then the only restorer region, which had ballooned in size and carried the distinction of being the largest region in NationStates (obviously this was long before the days of card-farming!).

Both regions' World Factbook Entries intially read "Something stirs..." and stir, somethings did: over the course of the next few hours, at least a dozen nations would find their way into Osiris and Balder, including the region's first refounded nations, Kanoshii and Indraha respectively, and puppet nations of Revert (Luna Amore), Ballotonia, and Evil Wolf.

The Site Admin, [violet] later noted that she did not intially announce the creation of the two new regions because she wanted to see how the regions would evolve on their own without a News post pointing everyone to it.

The next day, shortly before 2:00 EDT, defenders from Thousand Island Treaty Organization (TITO) began entering Osiris en masse in response to the arrival of known invaders, Kain the dragoon (Leo Romefeller) and East Triludia (Gerzam). TITO represented 10000 Islands (10KI) which at that time was the largest defender region in NationStates.

Although East Triludia (Gerzam) and Kain the Dragoon had declared themselves "Co-Emperors" of Osiris and called for an "Aretist Revolution", the rationale behind 10KI's deployment faced public scrutiny as Kain and other invaders were surpassed in terms of endorsements by other residents, including most notably Revert (Luna Amore).

Shortly after TITO deployed in Osiris, I and other members of the United Defenders League (UDL) became aware of the existence of Balder and Osiris. It wasn't immeaditely clear to us what the significance of the small founderless regions were. Indeed, I recall a lot of confusion in our IRC channel that night. After some discussion, I made a gut call to order a UDL deployment into Balder for the purposes of seizing the delegacy.

The goal for the deployment was clear: to occupy the power vaccum in an interim capacity and ensure a peaceful and democratic transition of power to an elected native government. However, I remained reluctant about the operation because the UDL already had its hands full dealing with an occupation in Utopia and defenders typically only responded to invaded regions to restore the delegacy to native communities. In the case of Balder, there was no invasion to respond to, and no native community in sight. We were entering unchartered territory...

I slept poorly that night, waking up periodically to check my nation's endorsements and look out for any challengers.

My worrying was for naught though. Shortly after midday, I (under my puppet name, Robin Hood) became the first delegate of Balder and TITO Commander Improving Wordiness (Sichuan Pepper) became the first delegate of Osiris. It is worth noting however that the UDL had been challenged earlier that morning by a late bid for the delegacy by the President of Europeia, Rachel Anumia, who solicited endorsements from Europeia, Empire of Earth, the New Inquisition, and Land of Kings and Emperors. In the years to come, Rachel would play a significant role in Balder as a delegate, sovereign, and forum admin.

As delegate, I quickly established an election for Balder's next WA Delegate (to be concluded on October 23) and launched an open Constitutional Convention for Balder residents to develop their region's first constitution. Unfortunately, Luxembourg (also known as Aglirinia), the runaway favourite for the delegacy, would later hack his Vice Delegate's email account and tried (unsuccessfully) to overthrow the government.

Meanwhile in Osiris, TITO Command announced that an election would be held to decide the region's next WA Delegate and A Mean Old Man (AMOM), a respected neutral gameplayer, had been chosen by TITO to oversee this process. In a very close vote (21-19) against Revert, Zaolat was declared the winner of that interim delegate election.

Initially, Revert had tied with Zaolat, but upon realizing Zaolat had voted for Revert while Revert had voted for himself, Revert famously asked for his vote to be changed in Zaolat's favour as a good-mannered gesture!

I'll always remember these days as an especially exciting time for NationStates: full of opportunity and buzzing with rival ambitions. The creation of these two regions were truly unexpected events and both Osiris and Balder would continue to hold the attention of a captive playerbase for many months to come as laws were written, treaties were struck, and their governments matured.

For a fuller recap on these events and more, you can read my writings in "Something Stirs: The History of Early Balder & Osiris."

[Ikania]

I think it would be unethical and a very bad look for the site administration to endorse a work by Unibot and put it on the site news page. As I'm not allowed to elaborate, I decided to write my own history, one that's a little more concise, spanning more time, and a little more fun. I have deliberately left out many/most names. In light of Cormac's recent DOS declaration, I can understand if the mods would prefer not to mention him at all in spite of his significance to Osiris' history - if that is the case, just remove the entire line in which he's mentioned. I'm not 100% sure Balder still uses the Norse raven, so someone can feel free to correct me on that. If this actually ends up getting used, I give full permission to the mods to edit it in any way they see fit.

---

In the beginning, there was nothing. And then, there was the Pacific. Then many Pacifics. Where is the Atlantic? To this day, we don't know. But something could become nothing, and back again, and when nothing turned to something, something needed somewhere to go. So, there was Lazarus. But then many nations, as minnows in a pond, began to populate Lazarus. For nearly a decade, she bore the burden silently. Lazarus became swollen and overwhelmed, and as the dam prepared to burst, out from the tech department came Testlandia, our story's dauntless hero.

What spawned from Testlandia's palms were two regions, both alike in dignity -- in fair NationStates, where we lay our scene. Osiris and Balder, whose eponyms are Dead-Gods-Made-Whole-Again, were founded with little fanfare, and told to share the task eternal with Lazarus. Meanwhile, the scramble for power had already begun. First to the field were the two Aretist duumvirs, Kain and Gerzam, who seized Osiris and made ready to do bloody battle with the Ten Thousand Islands. Meanwhile, the merry men of the United Defenders League made haste to secure Balder, fighting off myriad enemies to claim the sundered throne of Gods.

After the warring factions in Osiris came to an agreement, the nascent Osirans quickly organized for themselves a government of sorts, and Zaolat became the first Pharaoh of the Kemetic Republic. The sand-shrouded Republic would last two years, bar two separate day-long coups d'état which saw the notorious Empire and Gatesville seize control of the region. In its dying days, the Kemet came to symbolize dysfunction, and so Osiris shed itself of the past and was borne anew as the Osiris Fraternal Order. This golden era of Osiris was defined by players such as Koth, Venico, Cormac, Ikand, and Tim. Its existence was imperiled in 2016, where disputes over the result of an election led the OFO's old guard to overthrow the Almighty Jesus Whale, who indeed died for our fins. The actions of Tim and Cormac to preserve and renew the OFO led Osiris into its current era. The Osiris Fraternal Order continues to prosper to this day, under the watchful eye of its wise Pharaohs. The symbol of Osiris is two eyes of Horus overlapping each other.

In Balder, land of axe and song, an imperialist coalition of Europeia, the Land of Kings and Emperors, the Empire of Earth, and the New Inquisition came together in an endorsement battle with the aforementioned merry men. When the dust settled, the defenders held on, and made ready to hold the region's first election. The first elected Delegate was the nonpartisan Luxembourg, whose reign would eventually end in scandal and a failed coup. The imperialist-leaning natives would eventually overtake the defenders, who gradually made an exodus from Balder and led the establishment of a monarchy: the Realm of Balder. The monarchy's longevity is impressive -- Balder has not suffered any kind of uprising, coup or revolution since its early days in 2011. The crown has passed between only five individuals since the beginning of 2012: Zander Cerebella, Charles Cerebella, By Night, Rachel, and North East Somerset, the latter of whom sits upon the throne today. Also of note is OnderKelkia, who has served Balder as Statsminster (head of government) on multiple occasions, for many cumulative years. The symbol of Balder is a Norse raven, of the famous raven banner.

Today, the three "restorer" sinkers of Lazarus, Osiris and Balder are viewed as inseparable. It feels as though they have all existed forever, in tandem with each other. But the wizened and grey among us remember a time when this was not so; perhaps one day you, dear reader, will be the one, a decade from now, to remember times as they were, and tell today's stories to the NationStates of tomorrow. We'll see you in 2031!

[Unibot III]

I think it would be unethical and a very bad look for the site administration to endorse a work by Unibot and put it on the site news page.

I doubt it will be used, so I'm sure you can put your pitchfork away. I was a bit disheartened to see I was the only one present for the Oct 18 events that submitted a testimony. I had delayed submitting a perspective in the hopes that someone else might share something from their perspective on those events.

[The Church of Satan]

Honestly, Ike's has a certain creative flair to it. It tells the story better. I like it.

[Zaolat]

First to the field were the two Aretist duumvirs, Kain and Gerzam, who seized Osiris and made ready to do bloody battle with the Ten Thousand Islands.

After the treatied army of the Isles drove the Aretists back from whence they came, the nascent Osirans quickly organized for themselves a government of sorts, and Zaolat became the first Pharaoh of the Kemetic Republic.

Snipped out the irrelevant parts to my response here. Also going to give more background to my perspective of the founding times.

The "Aretists" didn't leave. They integrated into my faction even before TITO took the delegacy. When I had realized that Kain was Leo, I went and made talks. Leaving essentially TITO, myself (a mishmash of players from literally everywhere not involved in Balder), and Mahaj.

To give an idea of the mishmash; included Todd McCloud from TEP, Dalimbar and Neo Kervoskia, Harmoneia from Lazarus, PhDre from Europeia, Oliver formerly Europeia, Kain/Leo from the Ascendency, Mahaj later from UDL. These were the essential core group, though Mahaj wasn't as trusted because his age. There were also many defenders and raiders and whoever not involved in Balder that weren't core group but essential to backing me like Wop.

I was a Defender of the FRA, my involvement started that day asking Wop if he wanted to be delegate of a GCR. He declined, so I said "fuck it, I will do it".

At this time in NS, it wasn't like now. Regions didn't mass communicate with each other and raiders/defenders almost never did except in taunting on the forums or if they were in a non military aligned region (i.e. Equinox or a GCR). DYP and I are the few I'm aware of on the defender side that had communications and friendships with a lot of non defenders. My thought was, not to have a new GCR be controlled by a defender group (10KI) or some raider group (Assumed as Kain).

I feel like early on this was Balder's problem, you had a heavily defender group and then you had Europeia considered a raider group with Imperialist ties. Which from my perspective took them some time at the beginning because they were divided. Whereas with Osiris, it was to integrate so there was no division but neutrality. So our problems happened later.

Even with TITO having an obvious upperhand, I wanted to make sure in the case they left, that I could establish a neutral community, so I pulled on everyone I knew that weren't involved in Balder, including people who's regions/groups were involved in Balder. So a core group was formed and we had support. TITO took the region and then held elections.

Revert was not affiliated so was seen as a neutral/native candidate and I was seen as a defender one. I'm not sure how well known Luna Amore (Revert) was then to people but he was seen as viable rather than the randoms that were in the election. I personally didn't campaign or anything like that, don't think Luna did either. I voted for Revert because aside from me, I thought he would be a better second choice and let the dice fall.

[Ikania]

Thank you for the tip, I've made a small edit to reflect what you said. Let me know if there's anything else or if you think it needs more.

[The North Polish Union]

In Balder [...] The imperialist-leaning natives would eventually overtake the defenders, who gradually made an exodus from Balder and led the establishment of a monarchy: the Realm of Balder.

Referring to the imperialists as "natives" of balder is a bad take. From its earliest days Balder's monarchy essentially functioned as a client of the LKE, TNI et al. and the government was largely imports from a variety of imperialist regions rather than being a "native monarchy". Although this has changed to an extent, the presence of former LKE emperor Onder as an RO in Balder is evidence that sovereignty has not been fully achieved, even after a decade.

[Ikania]

In Balder [...] The imperialist-leaning natives would eventually overtake the defenders, who gradually made an exodus from Balder and led the establishment of a monarchy: the Realm of Balder.

Referring to the imperialists as "natives" of balder is a bad take. From its earliest days Balder's monarchy essentially functioned as a client of the LKE, TNI et al. and the government was largely imports from a variety of imperialist regions rather than being a "native monarchy". Although this has changed to an extent, the presence of former LKE emperor Onder as an RO in Balder is evidence that sovereignty has not been fully achieved, even after a decade.

I’m not wading into that dispute. The imperialists who won control over Balder in 2011 are, by and large, still there, without any challenge to their presence. They’re the closest thing Balder has to a native community.

[Lord Dominator]

In Balder [...] The imperialist-leaning natives would eventually overtake the defenders, who gradually made an exodus from Balder and led the establishment of a monarchy: the Realm of Balder.

Referring to the imperialists as "natives" of balder is a bad take. From its earliest days Balder's monarchy essentially functioned as a client of the LKE, TNI et al. and the government was largely imports from a variety of imperialist regions rather than being a "native monarchy". Although this has changed to an extent, the presence of former LKE emperor Onder as an RO in Balder is evidence that sovereignty has not been fully achieved, even after a decade.

So Balder won’t be independent until Onder holds no position is what you’re saying?

Referring to the imperialists as "natives" of balder is a bad take. From its earliest days Balder's monarchy essentially functioned as a client of the LKE, TNI et al. and the government was largely imports from a variety of imperialist regions rather than being a "native monarchy". Although this has changed to an extent, the presence of former LKE emperor Onder as an RO in Balder is evidence that sovereignty has not been fully achieved, even after a decade.

I’m not wading into that dispute. The imperialists who won control over Balder in 2011 are, by and large, still there, without any challenge to their presence. They’re the closest thing Balder has to a native community.

I mean, they’ve been there longer than anyone, set up the current government, didn’t engage in any recent purges of other people we could agree are natives, etc. In any other region they’d be pretty unambiguously be the natives, to hold them as not because of personal dislike on their alignment/possible reasons for being there isn’t a particularly good argument.

[Ikania]

I agree 100%. I was a citizen of Balder in 2016-17 despite being a defender. The citizenship process is as easy as any other region. The current community, in my opinion, is undoubtedly the native one, and more so than many other regions who've gone through turmoil and coups that reset their communities.

But that's just my opinion. I didn't want to inject bias into my account, because I've only been playing since 2013. If I were biased, I would have gone on a diatribe about how Jesus Whale did nothing wrong

[Goobergunchia]

Who may be considered a "native" of Osiris and Balder now and who was ten years ago are two entirely different questions. I stand by what I said ten years ago that neither region had natives at their start, and even now I'd hesitate to confer the label on anybody that moved in just because they wanted to be in a GCR's government.

In general I find that "native" is a weird label to apply in sinkers, particularly restores. If a GCR has been held by imperial interests originally from another region, who cares what label we use? Unless the GCR has demonstrated an ability to conduct its affairs independent of its leaders' home region then I don't see why we should treat its government as anything other than a subsidiary of the same.